Filed to story: Watch Out, I’m The Lady Boss (Eleanor & Sebastian) Book PDF Free
I nodded at her.
That was when Daniel finally decided to show up, fresh from whatever mirror he’d been admiring himself in.
He took one look at the scene and his face went from “Skyline City heartthrob” to “incoming category five hurricane” in half a second.
“Eleanor! What the hell are you doing? If you’re pissed off, take it out on me! Leave Catherine out of it!” he snapped, storming towards me.
Moving fast, he grabbed my wrist, trying to yank my hand out of Catherine’s hair.
But I wasn’t letting go.
“You stay out of it!” I snapped, tightening my grip.
“You just assume it’s my fault without even asking, yeah?”
“You’re literally dragging Catherine around by her hair! Am I supposed to pretend I’m blind?”The room was full of Skyline’s top-tier elite-the type of people Daniel used to stalk on LinkedIn and now desperately wanted to impress. His ego must’ve been melting faster than an ice cream on a July pavement.
So, naturally, he took it out on me, yanking my arm so hard I thought my bones would snap.
I barely had time to swear before a hand clamped down on Daniel’s arm. Hard.
Daniel stiffened.
“Who the hell-?”Sebastian ripped Daniel’s hand off me like peeling gum off a shoe, and took hold of my wrist.
“Come with me.”The way he was glaring at Daniel, you’d think he was two seconds away from breaking every bone in his hand.
I glanced down. A bright red mark was blooming across my wrist like some godawful brand. Fantastic. Just what I needed battle scars from my ex.
Sebastian saw it too. His eyes narrowed. He shot Daniel a look so cold it could’ve frozen the Hudson. Daniel actually flinched, breaking into a nervous sweat.
He just stood there, dumb as a lamppost, while Sebastian led me upstairs without a word.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted some guy in a suit storming towards Yvaine, with a swarm of security guards on his heels.
“Let go of me! Not my fault!” Yvaine shrieked.
“Everyone saw it! Daniel has been cheating, parading his side chick around like it’s spring break, and they ganged up on Elean! The wedding’s off! And it’s not Elean’s fault she’s bailing – it’s because Daniel is a lying piece of shit!”
“I need to get to my friend,” I said.
“She’ll be fine,” Sebastian said curtly.
I saw the guy in the suit barking orders at the guards, waving them towards the knot of people crowding Yvaine. They waded in, peeling the mob off her.
Yvaine was still on her feet, looking pissed but perfectly fine.
Sebastian added, “They’re coming this way. Don’t worry, your friend’s fine.”The Deal No time to argue His grip on my wrist was firm but not rough, dragging me into a side room that looked like a petrate lininge Seconds later, the suit came barging in, hauling Yvaine by the art He raked a hand through his immaculately groomed hair and bark at her, “Right. Start talking. What the hell happened?”
Yvaine grabbed a napkin and started dabbing at her wine-soaked dress. She launched into a play-by-play of the mess downstairs While she ranted, Sebastian brought out a med kit, his hand surprisingly gentle as he dabbed antiseptic on my wrist. His tough was careful, almost… reverent.
The iodine burned slightly.
Not that it was the worst part. The real problem was how bloody close he was. Sebastian was half-kneeling in front of me, breath ghosting over my skin, and between the sting and the heat of him my whole arm was ready to catch fire.
His eyes flicked over me, sharp and thorough, like he was scanning for damage. I felt stripped bare.
I yanked my hand back and shrugged like it was no big deal.
“I’m fine, really. I box, you know. If it had come down to it, those girls wouldn’t have stood a chance.”Sebastian pushed himself upright, grabbed his phone, and made a call. When it connected, he said, “Pull the security footage from the first floor.”I checked on Yvaine, blotting at the giant wine stain on her designer dress. The guy in the suit hovered nearby, passing me tissues like he was trying to make himself useful.
“That dress is a goner,” he said.
“I’ll tell the housekeeper to bring you a fresh one.”Yvaine waved it off.
“The dress is fine. If you hadn’t dragged me off I swear I would’ve roasted Daniel into a permanent meme!”Then she shot me an apologetic wince and said, “Elean, about me yelling the whole engagement’s off in public-you’re not mad, right? It just sort of… slipped out.”I shrugged.
“I’m not mad.”Then I looked over at Sebastian.
“I didn’t realise you’d arrived. You were upstairs this whole time?”Even when fists were flying and glasses were smashing, I hadn’t missed it. Sebastian had appeared from the second floor, not the front entrance.
Sebastian hesitated.
Before he could say anything, the guy in the suit cut in: “Why can’t he be upstairs? He lives here.”I blinked at Sebastian.
“You live here?”Yvaine butted in too, eyes flicking between the guy in the suit and Sebastian.
“Wait, you two know each other?”The guy nodded.
“Duh. We’ve been friends for ages. That’s Sebastian Laurent. Just got back from Europe. This whole party’s for him.”I nearly fell over.
“Sebastian Laurent? You told me your name was Sebastian Girard!”At the same time, Yvaine screeched too: “Sebastian? Elean, this is your new fianc??”Sebastian, calm as a dead heart monitor, said to me, “Girard’s my mum’s surname. Laurent’s my dad’s.”His friend’s jaw hit the floor.
“Wait, what? You’re engaged?”Sebastian side-eyed him.
“This party is to announce it. Didn’t you get the memo?”
My brain was doing somersaults.
I knew the Laurents were throwing this party, but I’d thought Sebastian was just a guest, not the bloody host himself.
Sebastian hadn’t exactly lied to me, but neither had he told me the f truth.
Then something his friend had said earlier lit up in my head, and rounded back: “If this is your house, why the hell did you rent the flat opposite mine at Oakwood Apartments?”Sebastian looked me dead in the eye.
“Oakwood’s my company’s development. The whole building’s mine. I stay there sometimes.”
“That’s how you knew I’d moved there. I’m your… tenant.”He nodded.
Another memory hit me between the eyes.
“And La Vache Dor?e? You own that restaurant too?”He nodded.
“And the bar?” Damn it, I couldn’t even remember its name.
“The one where we… the night we…”Another nod.
My emotions were doing the cha-cha. Badly.
Since the day I met him, Sebastian had given off a dangerous aura, not murderer-dangerous, more like apex-predator-dangerous. The height, the build, the lethal arms that looked like they could punch through drywall, the unreadable eyes-you’d have to be suicidal not to flinch.
And yet.
He’d picked up my keys when I dropped them and driven halfway across the city to return them.
He’d gone along with my drunken, desperate one-night-stand plan without a flicker of judgement.
He’d even offered to fake an engagement to help me get my pushy parents off my back.
Somewhere in my idiot brain, I’d filed him under “dangerous but good-hearted”.
Now, though, knowing he literally owned half of Skyline City and more, the pressure crushed down on me like a hydraulic press.
I didn’t know what I felt.
Shock, sure.
But it was more than that.
It was like thinking you’d adopted a scrappy little kitten, only to realise you’d been cuddling a bloody tiger.
The room went dead silent.
Then Yvaine mumbled, “I, ah, I can’t wear this. I need to change. Cas, come with me.”She grabbed the man’s arm and bolted out of the room.
“I’ll put the first-aid kit back,” Sebastian said, disappearing into the en suite bathroom.
I heard Yvaine’s voice outside: “Why the hell didn’t you tell me he was Sebastian Laurent?”The man she called Cas shot back, “How was I supposed to know you’d met him before? And why’re you dragging me off? I haven’t even asked about the bloody engagement yet!”
“Did you not hear? They’re engaged.”
“No way! Sebastian’s been in love with someone for years. What’s the engagement bullshit?”
“What? What someone? Who is it? Spit it out-
Their voices faded as they stormed down the hall.
I sat there, the echoes of their argument fizzing through my skull,
“Complicated” did not even begin to cover it.
If what Sebastian’s friend said was true, that he was in love with someone else, why’d he agree to be fake-engaged to me?
I heard the footsteps before I saw them.
Daniel shoved the door open.
“Eleanor! Have you lost your bloody mind? Apologise to Catherine! And that idiot bestie of yours, yelling about you calling off the engagement, embarrassing me in front of the whole city! Was that your idea?”I tilted my head, brows pulling tight. I’d just managed to cool off, but Daniel’s voice was like lighter fluid on a barbecue.
“Daniel,” I said sweetly, “we’re already done. Yvaine was just telling the truth.”
“We’re not done unless I say we’re done!” He scowled.
“We’ll talk about that later. Catherine’s face is swollen thanks to you. Don’t you feel the tiniest bit guilty?”Behind him, Catherine clung to his sleeve like a human handkerchief.
“I’m fine,” she said in a tiny voice.
“If she doesn’t want to apologise to me, whatever. But she should apologise to the Laurents. The ballroom’s a total mess now. The party’s basically ruined before it even began.”Daniel gave her hand a patronising pat, then turned back to me.
“Cathy’s right. You need to apologise to the Laurents. Publicly. Immediately. Or I’ll-“The words barely left his mouth when the bathroom door behind me swung open.
Sebastian strode past me, planting himself right in Daniel’s face.
“She’s not apologising to anyone.”Daniel blinked at him, thrown off for half a second.